Patricia Highsmith
The Price of Salt (1952)
Author: Patricia Highsmith (as Claire Morgan)
Genre (and Subgenre): Romance (Lesbian)
Plot Summary:
Therese is working a temporary job at a department store when she encounters
the sophisticated and striking Carol, purchasing a doll for her daughter.
Over the next few weeks the two spend a lot of time together, Therese
blowing off her boyfriend to see Carol, who is going through a divorce.
Therese realizes that she is falling in love with Carol, but is deathly
afraid of being rejected by her. The two grow closer and Carol takes Therese
with her on a road trip to see the American countryside. During the trip the
two admit their love for one another and everything is beautiful for one
brief second. They soon realize they are being followed. Harge, Carol’s
husband, has hired a private detective and aims to use this information
about Therese and Carol to gain full custody of their daughter, Rindy. Drama
ensues. Carol goes up against the lawyers and fights for the custody of her
daughter, but she has to fight for herself as well. It is a fight in which
no one comes out unchanged. SPOLIER: Carol refuses to let the lawyers
pin her down and tell her what to do. She chooses to be who she is and to be
with Therese. For Therese, it is a story of self-discovery and sexual
awakening.
Geographical Setting: New York City, the American countryside
Time Period: 1952, Contemporary
Series: Patricia Highsmith wrote this title under the pseudonym
Claire Morgan, right after publishing Strangers on A Train. This is
the only “lesbian” novel she has written.
Appeal Characteristics:
This is one of those books that people read to savor the words, to read and
re-read long languid sentences. It is a story that engulfs you and is heavy
on visualization. Time is spent inside the protagonists head, pondering over
the details of people and love and life. The tone is very literary. It isn’t
a quick read, but it is compelling, as the reader experiences life through
the protagonist. The characters, especially the main character, are very
interesting and complex people. It is a character driven work. Themes are
self-discovery, sexual awakening, what it means to be a live, to be awake,
ideas of womanhood and female friendship. This was the first lesbian romance
novel to have a happy ending, and as such, has been extremely influential.
Read-alikes: A reader who likes that the story is a cross-country
romance of unsanctioned love, may enjoy Nabokov’s Lolita, a novel
about what it means to love, and to feel, and to be alive. Another early
lesbian classic romance that fought to break conventions and challenged
social mores, is Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel, The Well of Loneliness.
If the reader wants another novel with a female protagonist growing up in
mid-century America, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, may be a good
choice. It is a literary novel of self-discovery in which the protagonist
challenges female stereotypes, addresses sexuality, and develops the courage
to be herself, whatever that means. Patience and Sarah, by Isabel
Miller, is an uplifting lesbian romance in which the two women defy their
families and community in order to be together. It also won the American
Library Association’s first Gay Book Award in 1971. If a reader identifies
with Therese’s journey of self discovery, finding the courage to love and to
be loved, Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet, in which two women find
romantic love within a female friendship, may be a great choice.
Red Flags: Some may be put off by the homosexual relationships and
challenges to female roles in society.
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